4 August, ’17.
3rd Anniversary.

Rain of course. That goes without saying. Had a small parade this morning, practicing putting on “Gaspirators.” Six seconds is the time allowed and that is ample. I see the morning’s paper says the reason there were not more prisoners up north was because our bombardment killed so many — M’yes — quite so!

We have had a small lecture on the Huns’ new gas. Large calibre shells of Prussic Acid gas. Gentle creature, the Hun! It has already been christened the “Mustard” shell, as it leaves the ground, where it hits, yellow, and tickles the nose like mustard. It remains effective for as long as thirty hours. You can absorb it through the skin by rubbing your clothes with your hands; in fact, any old way. It seems to be made so you can get gassed with the least possible trouble on your part. “Deadly” is its middle name. A place may be shelled with it, one day, and you go past that place next day, and be gassed. So you see, in spite of everything, the humane German has found another horror to add to the list.